Dignified Response

- Enough caffeine can solve just about anything.
- I have a nearly unlimited capacity for playing Bejeweled Blitz.

Report #1: A grande americano, can of Coke, and Monster energy drink later, I can not yet see through, travel through, or otherwise interact with the flow of time. Disappointing. Further reports to follow.

I mentioned recently that I went out and purchased the album "Plans" by "Death Cab For Cutie". Originally my favourite song was I Will Follow You Into The Dark, but after listening through the CD a number of times, my favourite (by far) is "What Sarah Said".

It's a really sad song, but I can't stop listening to it. It's beautiful.

Check it out. Also, I've been messing around with blip.fm a bunch recently. You can find my profile at http://blip.fm/Evendir

I've never really liked drinking coffee. As part of the normal office experience I find myself being dragged to Starbucks fairly often regardless. This week I had a revelation, however. It turns out, I've been doing it all wrong! This week I switched to drinking Americanos instead of regular coffee. I'm hooked.

Sometimes the iTunes genius playlists really impress me. I asked it to make a playlist based on "Such Great Heights", and based on my music collection it put together a 25 song playlist comprised of songs from The Postal Service, Delerium, Crystal Method, songs from the The Matrix soundtrack, DJ Shadow, Paul Oakenfold, plus Alabama Blues and Teardrop. Awesome. This all goes so well together.

So, a while back ago I stated that, based on my listening habits, I'd have to say that Shimmer is my favourite song.

Well, I was recently thinking about the same thing in terms what is my favourite complete album. Looking at my play count in iTunes and my gut feeling sort of suggest the same thing:

"A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" by "Panic! At The Disco"

This CD is really amazing. The interesting thing about it how it is designed as a CD in two separate sections, with an instrumental track (aptly named "Intermission") between them. And both halves are awesome. There is not a single track on CD that I don't love to listen to. I'm not sure that's really true of any other album I own. Even others that would compete for the title (Garbage's Version 2.0, NiN's Pretty Hate Machine, Linkin Park's Meteora come to mind) have at least one track that I'm not really in love with (Medication, The Only Time, and Hit The Floor, respectively).

As a complete aside, I think LP must be aware Hit The Floor isn't very good. I'm fairly sure it's the only one of their songs I've never heard them perform in the numerous times I've been to their concerts.

Anyway, weird. I'm not sure how I feel about declaring this my favourite CD, considering it's not even in my core genre, but hey, that's how these things go. I think it's correct. Even if I don't like their follow up album at all.

Can't sleep. Here is my list of the best and worst episodes, now that I've had some time to digest my ridiculous 110 episode sweep of Angel. Numbers in parentheses show the popular ranking according to The Angel Phenomenon.

1. Not Fade Away [5x22] (#2)
2. The Girl In Question [5x20] (#77)
3. Smile Time [5x14] (#6)
4. Waiting In The Wings [3x13] (#12)
5. A Hole In The World [5x15] (#7)

106. The Bachelor Party [1x07] (#105)
107. Why We Fight [5x13] (#104)
108. That Old Gang Of Mine [3x03] (#95)
109. Expecting [1x12] (#103)
110. Double Or Nothing [3x18] (#106)

The list of worst episodes was definitely harder to make. There is a lot of competition for that 106 slot, though I knew for sure which were going to make up my bottom 4. I could probably expand the top 5 if needbe. In no particular order, the other top 5 would be "City Of [1x01]", "In The Dark [1x03]", "Darla [2x07]", "Five By Five [1x18]", "Power Play [5x21]"

Take all of this with a grain of salt. I actually have a soft spot in my heart for what's considered the least popular episode (She), and the top rated episode isn't even in my top 10.

Speaking of things that are hilarious...

If you haven't seen the song (Mother Lover) from this past week's SNL (for Mother's Day), then you must. It is a moral imperative. It's worth the difficult trek to find a working link in Canada.

Starting reading the book "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" today. 68 pages in, hilarious so far. I was howling with laughter for most of the third (I believe) section.

Wow. Just, wow.

My re-watching the entire series of Angel is over, as I just watched the finale, Not Fade Away.

I can't remember being so awash with emotion after watching an episode television since, well, the first time I watched it. There is no doubt in my mind that it is the high point of the entire series. Such an amazing episode of television, and in fact, the last two episodes (which run into each other) are just incredibly compelling.

Also, I defy anyone who has watched the series to not shed tears during it. Out of all the character deaths that occur in the series, none pack nearly such a punch.

It's such an amazing shame the series didn't continue after the fifth season. From around episode 11 onwards, with the exception of one episode which is fairly awful, the series totally rocks. And the cliffhanger they end the series with... gah!

Man. Just, man. As with everyone else who saw this episode, all I have to say is: You bastards! How could you end it this way!